ATTITUDE CHANGE

Olutayo Sodipe CMD, Lagos

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of the session, participants will be able to:

define

attitude; differentiate between attitude and behavior; explain ways of developing Positive Mental Attitude in self and staff; discuss respective attitude types; and list the various methods of measuring attitude.

INTRODUCTION

Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude Many a times we hear people talk about a persons reaction as meaning the persons attitude. Behavior, on the other hand, is often confused with attitude. Behavior is motivated by attitude but not vice-versa. While attitude is leant over the years from the environment (home, school, work, etc.), experience, and education,

behavior is ones on-the-spot response to a particular stimulus which is susceptible to change as circumstance changes.

However, work related attitudes are often targeted at something.

Some people want to be seen as very hard working and so should always be promoted, some want to attract a male/female colleague for marriage or otherwise, some just want to be noticed and felt and yet others enjoy what they are doing and a few others just do not care.

This paper tells us all we need to know concerning attitude, especially as it relates to change.

It will help us develop a positive mental attitude in ourselves and other staff, teach us the steps to attitude change and more.

WHAT IS ATTITUDE?

According to the Advanced Learners Dictionary, attitude is a way of feeling, thinking or behaving. It is a mental state of mind which affects our behavior. Attitude therefore is a psychological posture or position taken by an individual or a group of persons over a period of time. Attitude is an inert characteristic of any human being. It is something inside that gives birth to human behavior. It is an abstract feeling that makes you behave the way you do.

A persons attitude is a function of the personality. A combination of factors is at play to form a persons attitude such as:

home background, school, work and friends or words, motion pictures, or other mass media.

Attitudes are inferred regularities in behavior. Every living person is exposed to all manner of things and events.

In the course of gathering experiences, he builds up characteristic reaction patterns, and so is ready to react to certain situations in certain ways. So, he has at his beck and call a repertory of possible actions. Cutting across these readiness to respond to possibilities are some uniformities some stable ways of reacting. These uniformed and stable ways of reacting are called Attitude.

FACTORS THAT DETERMINE ATTITUDE

Are

we born with attitudes or do we develop them as we mature? Most of our attitudes were shaped during our formative years. While we were born with tendencies toward temperaments, there are three factors that largely determine our attitude formation. These are the triple Es of attitude. They are:
Environment Experience Education

ENVIRONMENT Consists of:

Home: positive or negative influences School: peer pressure Work: supportive or over-critical supervisor Media: television, newspapers, magazines, radio, movies Cultural background

Religious

background Traditions and beliefs Social environment Political environment

In

a positive environment, a marginal performers output goes up. In a negative environment, a good performers output goes down.

 EXPERIENCES Our If

behavior changes according to our experiences with various people.

we have a positive experience with a person, our attitude towards him is likely to be positive and vice versa.

 EDUCATION This

refers to both formal and informal education. Strategically applied, knowledge translates into wisdom which translates into success. Education should teach us not only how to make a living but also how to live.

HOW ARE ATTITUDES EXPRESSED?

Attitudes

can be inferred from any characteristic way of responding to stimuli perhaps of thought, feeling or action. Therefore, gesture, facial expressions, tone of voice, body postures etc may express attitudes.
More

often than not, attitudes are expressed by what we say and the way we say it. This is why, we use language as the vehicle for Attitude tests.

ATTITUDES AS SOCIAL NORMS

Attitudes

may be viewed as social norms because they are products of social forces. Most attitudes have this history.
For

instance, why does one belong to a particular denomination instead of the other, prefer one make of automobile.

Most

times, these are matters of deliberate and thoughtful choice, sometimes a desire, accident or social obligation.
But

most times, they seem to fulfill a desire to be associated with certain kinds or class of people.

 Sometimes,

we belong to a particular social club or association just to be able to relate with them. Groups, on the other hand, tend to develop a degree of uniformity among their members, thus, they tend to dictate and control their attitudes over a wide spectrum and over a period of time. Sometimes, such attitudes last for as long as the person is associated with such group but at other times, it lasts for life.

ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR

An

attitude is a collection of feelings, beliefs, thoughts and actions. In organizations, employees behaviors are functions of their knowledge, skills and attitudes. These three components are interwoven and affect each other.

 Behavior

is a response to stimuli. It is not a learned and internalized way of doing things. It is an on-the-spot action.
If,

for instance, your boss suddenly passes an uncomplimentary comment at you, what will be your response? That is your behavior, not your attitude, because given another circumstance, you may behave differently.

The

basic characteristics of behavior are: perception, attitude, values, beliefs, ability, aptitude, need and reward.

POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE

Since

your attitude determines your altitude, it is good to have a positive mental attitude about yourself and others. Attitudes capture the thoughts and feelings of workers about their specific jobs and the organizations. To get the right attitude, then think more positively.

 To

make a relatively minor change in our lives, we should perhaps, appropriately focus on our attitudes and behaviors. The importance of having a receptive attitude can never be overemphasized.
Without

having our attention absorbed by the content of a particular passage or work, for instance, we may read and reread, learn and re-learn without capturing anything.

DEVELOPING POSITIVE ATTITUDE IN STAFF

Staff

needs high morale to perform well. Therefore, engage staff in a search for ways of achieving their goals rather than giving them ready made answers.
Find

out what the staff value most in their work. Then involve them in decisions that affect them.

 When

peoples self-confidence and motivation grow, they take on more challenging assignments.
They

prove to themselves that they can handle those challenges and so are able to solve most of the problems that inevitably arise. They are also more likely to accept further challenges, rather than give reasons why they can not.

 Thus,

it is necessary to equip staff with skills to enable them respond positively to changing business environment. To be successful, staff members should learn to recognize and use each others strengths.
Each

staff must feel that individually and collectively, they play essential roles in the structure of the team, and so, should feel free to contribute ideas about the organizations goal.

BENEFITS OF A POSITIVE ATTITUDE

People with positive attitudes have certain personality traits that are easy to recognize.
They

are caring, confident, patient, and humble. They have high expectations of themselves and others. They anticipate positive outcomes.

There are many benefits to having a positive attitude for oneself and for the organization.

 Benefits
Makes

For Self

for a pleasing personality Is energizing Increases your enjoyment of life Inspires others around you Helps you become a contributing member of society and a contributing member of society and an asset to the country.

 Benefits

For The Organization

Increases

productivity Fosters teamwork Solves problems Improves quality Makes for a congenial atmosphere Breeds loyalty Increases profits Fosters better relationship with employers, employees, and customers Reduces stress

ATTITUDE TYPES
There are four possible combinations of staff attitude and ability. These include: (a)The Wont Do - Cant Do Type: This type is obviously an incomplete employee who is unwilling to improve.

He is not trainable because even though he doesnt know, he is also not willing to know. Remember the saying, he who does not know and knows not that he does not know, is a fool. He is not fit for the job and should not be retained.

(b)

The Wont Do Can Do Type: This is a risk because other staff know he can do it but he has refused to, so, they too can not justify why they should do it. This is usually the unmotivated employee, who stands a chance of losing his job unless motivation can be raised.

(c)

The Will Do Cant Do Type: This type is good for an organization. He is the willing employee who experiences difficulties but will respond positively to training and encouragement. He needs a bit of push to acquire the necessary skills needed for the job. He is an inspiration to others.

(d)

The Will Do Can Do Type: This is an asset to any organization and must be properly harnessed. Not only does he know the job but is willing to do it. The employee who shows this attitude to work is a perfect candidate for promotion to higher challenges. He is also a great source of inspiration and can make a good leader (by example) to his subordinates and colleagues.

MEASUREMENT OF ATTITUDE
Measurement

of attitude can be done in various ways. The most common method is through the use of informal conversations.
The

essence of measuring attitude is to get a feedback on a particular attitude, in this case, work attitude, especially by staff.

More

formal means exist such as conducting attitude surveys, although these are often expensive to carry out. Other ways to get useful information include more limited surveys, sample polling, suggestion boxes and focus groups.

 Attitude

measurement is often difficult because attitude itself is abstract, so quantifying it is a bit difficult.
Attitude

can only be inferred (from facts or reasoning).

There

are many types of rating scales that have been developed to measure attitude. Some of them are: a) The Faces Scale b) The Likert Method c) The Semantic Differential Technique

 The

Faces Scale: In this, different faces ranging up to seven and not more than eleven, of mostly female, are drawn showing different moods.
Some

are very serious, angry, lacking in expression, happy, extremely happy, untidied hair style, beautifully dressed hair etc. Workers are asked to select the face which best expresses how they feel about their job in general. Such answers are analyzed and scored.

 The

Likert Method This consists of a set of declarative statements. Workers are asked to indicate the degree of their agreement or disagreement.
I love my job so much that I cant Strongly elsewhere. Undecided Agree Disagree Strongly look
agree 1 2 3 4 5

Example:

disagree

The

number of response categories may vary but five or seven is more common.
The

sum total of the responses to all items is a persons final attitude score.

 The

Semantic Differential Scale:

This technique relies on ratings of bipolar adjectives that are general enough to be applied to any topic. It requires a person to rate a given concept on a series of seven point bipolar rating scales. The respondent places X at one of the seven points on the scale.
Fair Clean Large Good Fast Strong

Unfair Unclean/Dirty Small Bad Slow Weak

At the end of it all, the survey is collected, scored and collated to arrive at a particular result for a specific management decision.

CONCLUSION
Since

attitude is a collection of feelings, thoughts and beliefs, it is very necessary that we carefully pick and choose what we want to be exposed to. It is true that we may not have control over what we are exposed to since, even experiences we can recall form part of our attitude both at work and in life generally, but we can help to improve our lot by taking a positive stand today.

 It

is never too late to make amends for as long as there is life. Let us all begin today to think positively of ourselves and others. Let us decide to apply ourselves to positive thoughts and behaviors. Let us consciously emulate that which is good and constantly practice it so as to change our attitude type for the better. If we do this successfully, we may have re-written our life-story towards being people of great influence.